| Propagandhi’s 1995 album Less Talk, More Rock was one of the best albums of its decade. With no videos and little advertising (though with a lot of touring, which, as any A & R guy will tell you, is the only promotional effort worth anything), Less Talk sold better than records whose advertising budgets could have fed a family of five for a year. On its heels, Propagandhi formed their own collective and record label, the G-7 Welcoming Committee, and devoted themselves mainly to the dissemination of information, placing local (for them, Manitoban) matters first and establishing themselves as a voice of the left. Time passed. The only good rock and roll came from heavy metal for six years, with the exception of Lifter Puller’s Fiestas and Fiascos. One began to wonder if there was any point in even trying to follow up on Less Talk; John K. Samson, who’d been the more melodic and introspective voice within the band, left to pursue his own indie-rock project the Weakerthans. And then, earlier this year, to virtually no fanfare from the trained monkeys who select the albums that get the lead reviews in this country’s prominent music publications, Propagandhi released Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes. |